Apart from Notre Dame, these 3 games will define Miami football season

There's no wonder what the biggest game of the 2026 season is for the Miami Hurricanes.

The entire season for both Miami and Notre Dame, and perhaps all of college football, revolves around the first weekend of November, when the two renew acquaintances in South Bend after last year's season-opening thriller.

The Hurricanes' super freshman Malachi Toney burst onto the scene with the opening touchdown, and Carter Davis booted home the winning field goal with a minute left in a rousing 27-24 win over Notre Dame, who were fresh off a national championship game appearance. The teams would go on to matching 10-2 records and, despite being placed ahead of the Hurricanes in the CFP rankings in the weeks leading up to the final release, the Irish were left out of the playoff thanks to that season-opening head-to-head loss. Notre Dame reacted very normally to the whole thing, passing on a bowl invitation and spending the offseason planning their revenge.

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Now Miami enters the season off a loss in the national championship, ready to take the next step and win another title. They've got a new quarterback in Darian Mensah, a retooled defensive line with Damon Wilson II, and eyes on their first ACC championship appearance and second straight CFP run.

Here's a look at the three games that will make or break Miami's 2026 season. If that's not enough, we threw on a special bonus fourth game at the end.

Miami vs Clemson | October 3

• Location: Memorial Stadium (Clemson, South Carolina)
• Start time: TBA

On paper, this is by far Miami's biggest in-conference test in the regular season. Clemson may no longer be the perennial national championship contender of the late 2010s, but last year's turbulent 7-6 season aside, Dabo Swinney routinely puts together teams that contend for the College Football Playoff. He dipped into the transfer portal to shore up the defense, especially in the secondary with former Penn State cornerback Elliot Washington II, Old Dominion safety Jerome Carter III and Southern Miss safety Corey Myrick. That unit was the weak link in what was otherwise the Tigers' biggest strength, tying SMU for the third-best scoring defense in the ACC in 2025.

Clemson's offense was abysmal last year, finishing 11th in the conference at 27.2 points per game, but there's reason to believe they will improve in 2026. After three seasons behind Cade Klubnik, Christopher Vizzina is expected to take over the offense with Jacksonville native and four-star freshman Naeem Burroughs joining Bryant Wesco Jr. and T.J. Moore. Death Valley is a traditionally tough place for visitors, but the Tigers went 3-4 at home last season and 1-3 against ACC opponents, including a 46-45 barnburner of a loss to Duke in which Darian Mensah threw for 361 yards and a career-high four touchdowns.

The Hurricanes haven't played the Tigers since 2023 (a 28-20 win) and haven't traveled to Clemson since 2022 (a 40-10 blowout loss in Mario Cristobal's first season in Coral Gables.

Miami vs Notre Dame | November 7

• Location: Notre Dame Stadium (South Bend, Indiana)
• Start time: 7:30 p.m. ET
• TV channel: NBC

We're really back in the 1980s glory days if Miami-Notre Dame is circled as a game of the year contender this far out. Marcus Freeman didn't need to add much to the No. 11 scoring defense that's returning nine key players, but he still grabbed a pair of four-star transfers in Pitt defensive tackle Francis Brewu and Colorado cornerback DJ McKinney. Two major pieces of the No. 3 scoring offense are gone, but the Irish's stellar running back tandem was kept under wraps last year in Miami: Heisman finalist Jeremiyah Love had 14 touches for just 59 total yards, while Jadarian Price was the more explosive of the two with 45 yards on six carries.

But while Aneyas Williams and redshirt freshman Nolan James Jr. should step in just fine, it's the passing game that draws the most attention in South Bend. C.J. Carr had an incredible freshman season with touchdown-to-interception numbers reminiscent of Mensah's (24-6 vs. 34-6), and this showdown could double as a Heisman elimination game. Freeman brought in fresh weapons for Carr, with Quincy Porter and Mylan Graham coming in from wide receiver factory Ohio State to run with Jordan Faison.

The Canes last visited Notre Dame in 2016, when they scored 27 straight points after falling behind 20-0 only for DeShone Kizer and Josh Adams to lead a late rally and Notre Dame to win 30-27 on a chip-shot field goal with 30 seconds left.

Miami vs Duke | November 14

• Location: Hard Rock Stadium (Miami Gardens, Florida)
• Start time: TBA

Miami won't get much opportunity to recover from whatever happens in South Bend. The defending ACC champions — yes, the five-loss Blue Devils did really win the conference last year — kick off what could be a trickier-than-expected three-game home stretch to close out the regular season. The difficulties around this game in particular are three-fold:

1. Coming right after the big Notre Dame game gives this all the feelings of a trap game. Whether they win or lose that one, it won't matter as much in the playoff picture as this conference game will, and recent Canes seasons have come undone with similar letdown games (looking at you, 2024 Syracuse).
2. You may have heard that Manny Diaz coached Miami before they brought in Mario Cristobal from Oregon. The defensive specialist has already led his new team into Hard Rock Stadium once before, a 53-31 annihilation at the hands of Cam Ward in 2024. But that was his first season in Durham, and he's followed in Mike Elko's footsteps in making the Blue Devils a respectable program, as evidenced by last year's ACC championship. About that …
3. Yes, this is the Darian Mensah revenge game. (It's the Cooper Barkate one too, but the quarterback always gets the most attention, right?) Diaz went heavy into the transfer portal to replace what was the ACC's top scoring offense last year, with Walker Eget coming from San Jose State to take over for Mensah at QB. Running back Nate Sheppard, who finished second in the ACC to Mark Fletcher Jr. in rushing yards with 1,132, and tight end Jeremiah Hasley are the only key contributors at the skill positions back from last year's bunch, but don't expect them to roll over when they come to Miami.

ACC championship game | December 5

• Location: Bank of America Stadium (Charlotte, North Carolina)
• Start time: Noon ET
• TV channel: ABC

Surprise! This actually might be the defining game of Miami's 2026 season, more so than even the Notre Dame game. With the schedule gods letting them avoid SMU, Louisville and Georgia Tech — three of the other five favorites to win the ACC and all of whom have stunned the Hurricanes the past few years — the Hurricanes should have the easiest path to Charlotte. After Clemson, the team on UM's schedule that finished highest in the conference's preseason poll is Virginia Tech, coming in at eighth. Add the ACC reworking its tiebreaker policy so the highest rated team in a key CFP metric gets in over a team with a better conference win percentage, and there's no excuse for the Canes to extend their unfathomable 21-year absence from the title game.

Miami football schedule 2026

All times Eastern.

• Friday, Sept. 4: at Stanford* | 9 p.m. | ESPN
• Thursday, Sept. 10: vs. Florida A&M | 8 p.m. | ACC Network
• Friday, Sept. 18: at Wake Forest* | 7:30 p.m. | ESPN
• Saturday, Sept. 26: vs. Central Michigan | 6:30 p.m. | The CW
• Saturday, Oct. 3: at Clemson* | TBD
• Saturday, Oct. 10: Open
• Saturday, Oct. 17: vs. Florida State* | TBD
• Saturday, Oct. 24: vs. Pittsburgh* | TBD
• Saturday, Oct. 31: at North Carolina* | TBD
• Saturday, Nov. 7: at Notre Dame | 7:30 p.m. | NBC
• Saturday, Nov. 14: vs. Duke* | TBD
• Saturday, Nov. 21: vs. Virginia Tech* | TBD
• Saturday, Nov. 28: vs. Boston College* | TBD

*- ACC game

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Apart from Notre Dame, these 3 games will define Miami football season

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